INVENTION IN THE ORIENT
The first countries to pass into the stage of recorded history were
Egypt and Babylonia. Excavations made near the sites of their ancient
cities have brought to light many inscriptions which, being deciphered
and translated, give us clear knowledge of the conditions under which
they lived, and therefore of the degree of the civilization that they
had attained.
As we note the progress that the inscriptions show us to have been
made beyond the stage reached by prehistoric man, it becomes clear to
us that much--if not most--of that progress could not have been made
without the aid of writing. One cannot conceive of the invention and
development of Astronomy, for instance, without some means of recording
observations that had been made.
In developing the art of writing itself, much progress was effected
in both countries, and many improvements were made in the art itself
that must have been due to that lower order of invention which consists
in improving on things already existing. In addition, invention was
employed in devising and arranging means for preserving the writings in
an enduring form. In Babylonia, this was done by making the writing on
soft tablets of clay about an inch in thickness, that were afterwards
baked to hardness. In the case of records of unusual importance, the
precaution was sometimes taken of covering the baked inscription with
a thin layer of clay, making a duplicate inscription on this layer,
and then baking it also. If afterwards, from any cause, the outside
inscription was defaced, it could be removed and the inside inscription
exposed to view.
In Egypt, the writing was done on sheets of papyrus, made from a reed
that grew in the marshes. To devise and make both the baked clay
tablets and the papyrus, it is clear that invention had to be employed;
for nothing exactly like them existed in nature. Thus the invention
of the art of writing was supplemented by the invention of the art of
preserving the records that writing made. The act of writing would have
been useful, even if no means had been invented for preserving the
things written; even if the things written had perished in a day. But
the importance of the invention of writing was increased ten thousand
fold by the invention of the means for preserving the things written;
because without that means it would have been impossible by any process
of continual copying of tablets to keep at hand for reference that
library of records of the past on which all progress has been based,
and from which every act of progress has started, since some inventor
of Babylonia invented baked clay tablets and some inventor of Egypt
invented papyrus.
It may be objected that there is no reason for assuming that any one
man invented either; that each invention may have been the joint work
of two men, or of several men. This of course, is true; but it does not
minimize the importance of either invention, or the credit due to the
inventors. It simply divides the credit of each invention among several
men, instead of giving it all to one. It is a notable fact, however,
that, although some inventions have been made by the joint work of two
men, and although some books have been written, and some music has been
composed by two men working in cooperation, yet such instances have
been rare.
Many men combine to do constructive work of many kinds, and millions
combine to work and fight together in armies; and it is an interesting
fact that the working together of many men has been made possible by
inventions, such as writing and printing. Yet there is hardly any other
kind of work that is so wholly a "one man job" as inventing. The fact
that only one man, as a rule, makes a certain invention, or writes a
certain book, or composes a certain musical piece, or does any other
inventional work, seems to spring naturally from the original fact that
an invention begins with a picture made by imagination on a mind. Now a
picture so made is an individual picture in an individual mind. If the
picture is allowed to fade, or if from any cause the mind that received
it does not form it into a definite entity, no invention is made. If,
on the contrary, the mind develops the dim picture into a definite
entity of some kind, that mind alone has made that invention; even if
other minds improve it later by super-posing other inventions on it.
It is true that sometimes a man who receives from his imagination
a mental picture of some possible invention will communicate it to
another man, and that other man will contribute some constructive work,
and make the dim picture into a reality; so that the complete invention
resulting will be the joint product of two men. It seems to be a fact,
however, that these dim pictures have rarely been disclosed while in
the formless period, and that almost every invention of which we know
the history, was made by one man only.
It need hardly be interjected here that we are discussing inventions
only, and not the acts of making inventions practicable in the sense
of making them useful or commercially successful. At the present day,
there are few inventions indeed, which even after having been completed
as inventions, need no modification at the hands of the engineer and
the manufacturer, before they are suitable to be put to practical use.
* * * * *
That the Babylonians realized the importance of their invention is
proved by the fact that their baked tablets were carefully preserved,
and that in some cities large libraries were built in which they were
kept, as books are kept in our libraries at the present day. When the
expedition of the University of Pennsylvania made its excavations
near the site of the ancient city of Nippur, in the southern part of
Babylonia near the city of Babylon, a library was discovered that
contained more than thirty thousand tablets.
[Illustration: Early Babylonian Signs, Showing Their Pictorial Origin]
The writing of the Babylonians, while phonetic, was a development of
picture writing, each character expressing a syllable, and was made of
wedge-shaped characters. From the shape of the characters the adjective
_cuneiform_ has been applied to the writing, the word coming from the
Latin word, _cuneus_, a wedge. Syllabic writing was in use for probably
three thousand years among the peoples of western Asia.
The Babylonians utilized their ingenuity and inventiveness in divers
ways, and accomplished many things that help to form the basis of
our civilization, without which we cannot imagine it to exist. Their
creations were of a highly practical and useful kind, and illustrate
the proverb that "necessity is the mother of invention." From the fact
that their ships sailed the waters of the Persian Gulf, and had need
of means to locate their positions and determine their courses from
port to port, and from the fact easily noted by their navigators that
the heavenly bodies held positions in the firmament depending on their
direction from an observer, and on the month and season and the time of
day, the study of the heavens was undertaken; with the result that the
science of astronomy was conceived and brought into existence.
It may here be asked if this achievement can properly be called an
invention. One must hesitate a little before answering this question
either negatively or positively; because such an achievement is not
usually called an invention, and yet it cannot truthfully be denied
that there is nothing in Nature like the science of astronomy, and
that therefore it must have been created by man. It cannot reasonably
be denied, also, that after the science had at last been formulated,
it was as clearly a distinct entity as a bow and arrow or a telephone.
Furthermore, it does not seem unreasonable to suppose that, before
any of the principles of astronomy were laid down, before anyone even
attempted to lay them down, before anyone even attempted to ascertain
the laws that seemed to govern the movements of the heavenly bodies,
the idea must have occurred to someone that those heavenly bodies were
all moving in obedience to some law; and a more or less confused and
yet real image must have been made upon his mind of a great celestial
machine. He must actually have imagined such a machine. This first act
would be quite like that of the inventor of a mechanical device. The
next act would be to observe and record all the phenomena observable
in connection with the movements of the celestial bodies, then to
analyze and classify them. This series of acts would not, of course, be
inventive or even constructive. They would rather be like those studies
of any art, without which no man could be an inventor in that art.
The analysis having been completed, the positions of the heavenly
bodies at various times having been ascertained and tabulated, the
next step would seem to be to construct a supposititious machine of
which each part would represent a heavenly body, and in which those
various parts would move according to laws induced tentatively from
the actual motions of certain heavenly bodies. If it were afterwards
found that all positions of each part, predicted in advance by applying
the laws tentatively induced, corresponded to the actual positions
of the heavenly body that it represented, then the supposititious
machine could be truthfully declared to be a correct imitation of the
great celestial machine. That is, the machine could be declared to be
successful.
The science of astronomy is, in effect, such a machine. Its parts are
representations of the sun, moon and other heavenly bodies, that move
according to laws that are illustrated in the diagrams, and expressed
precisely in the formulas.
The first act of the originator of the science of astronomy being one
of the imagination in conceiving a picture of a celestial machine, and
being like that of the inventor in conceiving a picture of an earthly
machine; and his second act being also like that of the inventor in
developing the picture, a justification for speaking of the "invention"
of the science of astronomy may perhaps be reasonably claimed.
(We must bear in mind, of course, that no invention is complete until
the third act has been performed, and the thing invented has been
actually produced.)
To speak of invention in connection with bringing forth novel creations
is far from new, for the phrases "construct a theory," "invent a
science," "invent a religion," etc., are in almost daily use; and it
may seem unnecessary to some persons, therefore, to discuss it at
such length. But most people seem to regard such phrases as merely
figurative; while the author wishes to make it plain that they are not
figurative but exact.
As this modest treatise does not pretend to be a learned one, and as
the author is not a professional scholar, no further attempt will
be made to claim the production of the science of astronomy as an
invention. To pursue the subject further would be merely to enter a
discussion as to the meaning, both original and derived, of the word
invention. The author, however, cannot escape the conclusion that,
no matter what may be the literally correct meaning of the word, the
mental acts performed by the originators of the science of astronomy
were like the mental acts performed by the inventors of mechanical
appliances, and exerted a similar influence on history. That is, he
believes that the men who brought into being the science of astronomy
and the men who brought into being the bow and arrow, first saw
pictures on the mental retina of some things actual yet vague and
formless, and then constructed entities from them. He believes also
that the creation of the bow and arrow, and the creation of the
science of astronomy constituted actual and similar stepping-stones on
which the race rose toward a higher civilization.
In default of any definition of the word invention, which precludes
its application to the origination of a science, theory, religion or
formulated school of thought, the author begs permission so to use it,
in indicating the influence on history of the novel creations which,
according to this meaning of the word, have been inventions.
The influence on history of the invention of the science of astronomy
has been so great that we cannot estimate its greatness. On it the
whole science of navigation rests. Without it, the science and the art
of navigation could not exist, no ships could cross the ocean from one
port to another, except by accident, and the lands that are separated
by the ocean would still rest in complete ignorance of each other.
This world would not be a world, but only a widely separated number of
barbarian countries; most of them as ignorant of even the existence of
the others as in the days before Columbus.
Following the invention of astronomy, or as it was first called,
Astrology, the imaginative and practically constructive intellects
of the Babylonians naturally led them to invent the sun-dial for
indicating the time during the day, and the water-clock for indicating
it during the night.
Another invention, doubtless brought into being by the study of
the movements of the heavenly bodies, was the duodecimal system of
notation, of which the base was twelve. In accordance with this
system, the Babylonians divided the Zodiac into twelve equal parts or
"signs"; divided the year into nearly equal months, that corresponded
approximately to the length of a lunar month; divided a day and a night
into twelve equal parts or hours; divided an hour in sixty (12 x 5)
equal parts or minutes, and divided a minute into sixty (12 x 5) equal
parts or seconds.
The duodecimal system of notation has been supplanted for many purposes
by the more convenient decimal system, the invention of which is
attributed by some to the Arabs; but the duodecimal divisions of time
are still with us, and the duodecimal divisions of the circle are still
used in most countries.
The duodecimal system of notation seems to have been the earliest
system of notation invented; and it was an invention so important that
we cannot imagine civilization without it and the decimal system,
possibly its offspring. The influence of these two inventions on
history has been so great that the mind is incapable of realizing its
greatness, even approximately.
Who were the inventors, we do not know. It is almost certain that none
of our generation ever will know, and it is far from probable that any
one of any generation will ever know. If any knowledge on this subject
is ever given to the world, it will be knowledge of names only--only
names. Yet some human beings, forgotten now and probably obscure even
in their lifetimes, invented those systems, and contributed more to the
real progress of the race than many of the great statesmen and warriors
of history.
The Babylonians invented measures of length, capacity and weight, also;
and it is from those measures that all the later measures have been
directly or indirectly derived. To have invented systems by which time,
angle, distance, space, weight and volume were lifted out of the realm
of the vague and formless into the realm of the definite and actual,
was an achievement that almost suggests that noted in the first chapter
of Genesis, in the words, "And God said 'Let there be light,' and there
was light"; for what a clearing up of mental darkness followed, when
the science of measurement turned its rays on the mysteries that beset
the path of early man!
The Egyptians seem to have been inventors, though hardly to the same
degree as were the Babylonians. The Egyptians studied the heavens and
employed a science of astronomy; and it is possible that they, rather
than the Babylonians, should be credited with its invention. But it is
not the intention of this book to decide points in dispute in history,
or even to discuss them. Its intention is merely to study the influence
that inventions and inventors had. Whether the name of an inventor was
John Smith or Archimedes, whether he lived in the year 1000 or 1100,
or which one of two rival claimants should be credited with the honor
of any invention, is often an interesting question; but it is not one
that is especially important to us, unless it casts light on the main
suggestion of our inquiry. The only reason for mentioning names and
dates and countries in this book is to show the sequence of inventions
as correctly as practicable. In order to show the influence of
invention on history it seems best to give the treatment of the subject
an historical character.
Possibly the most important invention of the Egyptians was papyrus,
which was the precursor of the paper of today. The clay tablets of
the Babylonians were clearly much less adapted to the making of many
records than was papyrus. One cannot readily imagine an edition of
300,000 newspapers like the _New York Times_, made out of clay tablets
an inch in thickness, and sold on the streets by newsboys. Clearly the
invention of papyrus was one so important that we cannot declare any
invention as more important, except on the basis that (other factors
being equal) the earlier an invention was the more important it was.
To assume such a basis would, of course, be eminently reasonable;
because the earlier invention must have supplied the basis in part for
the making of the later. The invention of writing, for instance, was
more important than the invention of papyrus.
[Illustration: Villa of an Egyptian Noble]
A curious invention of the Egyptians was the art of embalming the
bodies of the dead, an art still practiced in civilized countries. It
was prompted by their belief that the preservation of the body was
necessary, in order to secure the welfare of the soul in the future
life. This belief resulted further in building sepulchres of elaborate
design, filling them with multitudes of objects of many kinds,
decorating the walls with paintings, sculptures and inscriptions,
and placing important manuscripts in the coffins with the mummies or
embalmed bodies. The sepulchres of the kings were, of course, the
largest and most elaborate of all; and of these sepulchres the grandest
were the pyramids. By reason of the great care and labor lavished on
tombs and sepulchres and pyramids, and by reason also of the dryness of
the air in Egypt, and the consequent durability of works of stone, it
has been from the tombs that many of the clearest items of information
have come to us about old Egyptian times.
The Egyptians excelled in architecture, and the greatest of their
buildings were the pyramids. As to whether or not there was much
invention devoted to those works, it is virtually impossible now
to know. The probability seems to be that they could not have been
produced without the promptings of the inventor, but that the progress
was a slow and gradual march. It seems that there was a long series
of many small inventions that made short steps, and not a few basic
inventions that proceeded by great leaps.
The Egyptians seem to have been the inventors of arithmetic and
geometry. What men in particular should most be credited with
inventing them, we do not know; but that some men were the original
inventors the probabilities seem to intimate. For these sciences were
creations just as actual as the steam engine, and could hardly have
been produced save by similar procedures.
[Illustration: The Pyramids of Gizeh]
The suggestion may here be made that whatever we do is the result (or
ought to be) of a decision to do it, that follows a mental process
not very different from that invented by the German General Staff for
solving military problems. By this process one writes down--
1. The mission--the thing which it is desired to accomplish.
2. The difficulties in the way of accomplishing it.
3. The facilities available for accomplishing it.
4. The decision--that is, how to employ the facilities to overcome the
difficulties and accomplish the mission.
In solving a military problem (or in solving many of the problems of
daily life) it is often a matter of great difficulty to arrive at a
clear understanding of what the mission actually is, what one really
wishes to accomplish. In the majority of ordinary cases, however, the
mission stands out as a clear picture in the mind. Such a case would
be one in which an enemy were making a direct attack; for the mission
would be simply to repel it. Another case would be one in which the
mission was stated by the terms of a problem itself; for instance, to
build a steam engine to develop 1000 horse power. In the case of the
inventor, the mission seems to be sent to him as a mental picture; he
suddenly sees a dim picture in his mind of something that he must make.
Perhaps, many centuries ago, some man who had been laying out plots of
ground in Egypt, of different shapes and sizes, and making computations
for each one, suddenly saw a phantom picture in which all the lines and
figures appeared grouped in a few classes, and arranged in conformity
to a few fixed rules. The mission was given to him free, but it
devolved on him to formulate the rules. As soon as he had formulated
and proved the rules, the science of Geometry existed.
It is interesting to note that the conception of the idea required
no labor on the part of the conceiver. He was virtually a passive
receiver. His labor came afterwards, when he had to do the constructive
work of "giving to airy nothing a local habitation and a name."
The Egyptians seem to have learned the use of many drugs, though they
can hardly be said to have invented a system or a science of medicine.
They did, however, invent a system of characters for indicating the
weights of drugs. Those characters are used by apothecaries still.
The first means of cure were incantations that evidently influenced the
mind. It is interesting to note that modern systems tend to decrease
the use of drugs and increase that of mental suggestion.
Both the Babylonians and the Egyptians held religious beliefs; but it
is doubtful if the religious beliefs of either were so definite and
formulated that they could be correctly called religions, according to
our ideas of what constitutes a religion. An interesting fact is the
wide difference between the beliefs of the two peoples, in view of the
similarity of many of the other features of their civilizations. The
beliefs of neither can be called highly spiritual; but of the two, the
Egyptian seems to have been the more so. The Egyptians believed that
the souls of those who had lived good lives would be rewarded; while
the Babylonian belief did not include even a judgment of the dead.
One of the most important inventions made in Babylonia was that of a
code of laws. It is usually ascribed to a king named Hammurabi; but
whether he was the real inventor or not, we have no means of knowing.
We do know, however, that the first code of laws of which there is any
record was invented in his reign, and that it was the prototype of all
that have followed since.
The influence on history of the invention and carrying into effect of
a formulated code of laws, we cannot exactly gauge; but we may assert
with confidence that modern civilization would not have been possible
without codes of laws, and that the first code must have been more
important than any code that followed, because it led the way.
Both the Babylonians and the Egyptians seem to have made most of
their inventions in the period of their youth, and to have become
conservative as they grew older. The Babylonians were a great people
until about the year 1250 B. C., when a subject city, Assur, in the
north, threw off its allegiance and formed an independent state,
Assyria. The decline of Babylonia continued until the fall of Assyria
and the destruction of Nineveh, its capital, about the year 606 B. C.,
when the new Babylonian, or Chaldean Empire, came into existence. It
enjoyed a period of splendid but brief prosperity until it was captured
by Cyrus, king of Persia, in the year 538 B. C.
Egypt's career continued until a later day; but it was never glorious
in statesmanship, war or invention, after her youth had passed.
A nation possibly as old as the Babylonian or Egyptian was the Chinese;
but of their history, less is known. It is well established, however,
that they possessed a system of picture writing in which each word was
represented by a symbol. The system was much more cumbrous, of course,
than the syllabic or alphabetical; but its invention was a performance,
nevertheless, of the utmost brilliancy and importance, viewed from the
light of what the world was then. There is little doubt also that the
Chinese were the original inventors of the magnetic compass and of
printing from blocks, two of those essential inventions, without which
civilization could not have been brought about. Another of China's
inventions was gunpowder; though it is not clear that the Chinese ever
used it to propel projectiles out of guns.
Achievements equally great, and maybe greater, were the creations of
religions--Confucianism and Taoism, invented in China, and Buddhism,
invented in India. These religions may seem to us very crude and
commonplace and earthy; but we should not shut our eyes to the fact
that they have probably influenced a greater number of human beings
toward right living than any other three religions that we know of.
Like Babylonia and Egypt, China became conservative as she grew older.
At the present day, her name stands almost as the symbol of everything
non-progressive and non-inventive.
Assyria was able to capture Babylon about the year 1250 B. C., and to
maintain the position of the dominant power in western Asia for about
600 years. A progressive and ambitious people, they accomplished an
original and important step in the art of government by organizing
conquered peoples into provinces under governors appointed by the
king. It does not seem to be a great straining of the word to declare
that this achievement was so novel, so concrete and so useful as to
possess the essential features of an invention. For if we realize that
during all the times that had gone by, conquered peoples had remained
simply conquered peoples, paying tribute but not forming parts of the
conquering state, we can see that the idea of actually incorporating
them into the state, thereby increasing the population of the state
by the number of people incorporated, and making the state stronger
in that proportion, we can hardly fail to realize that the conception
of doing this was of the highest order of brilliancy. To work out
afterwards the details of developing the conception in such a way as
to render possible the production of an actual and workable machine
of government was a constructive act. When the machine was actually
produced a new thing had been created. In other words, the institution
of this new scheme in government seems to have followed the same three
stages as the invention of a mechanical device; that is, conception,
development and production.
_The likeness between this process and that of conception, gestation
and birth is obvious._
The Assyrians were evidently a very practical and constructive people,
somewhat such people as the Romans later were. They devoted themselves
to the practical side of life, and to this end they developed the
governmental and the military arts. They were great warriors. The
period of their greatest greatness was in the seventh and eighth
centuries B. C., when the conquerors Sargon II and Sennacherib were
kings. The splendor of the empire afterwards was conspicuous but not
long lived; for after unifying the great nations of the Orient under
Assyrian rule, and carrying on wars marked with the utmost of cruelty
and oppression, they finally entered on a rapid decline in morals,
and consequently in national prosperity and strength. The end came in
606 B. C., when a combined force of Medes and Babylonians captured
and sacked the hated Nineveh, the capital. The intensity of the
hatred against the Assyrians may be gauged by the completion of the
destruction visited on Nineveh. When Xenophon saw its ruins only two
centuries afterwards, he could not even ascertain what city those ruins
marked.
The Assyrians have left us clearer records of their achievements in
the invention of weapons than has any other ancient nation. It is
impossible to declare with certainty that all the seemingly novel
weapons and armor which the ancient Assyrians possessed and used were
invented by themselves, and not by the Egyptians or the Babylonians;
but the mere facts that the Assyrians were the most military nation of
the three, and that the specimens of those weapons which have come down
to us have been mostly Assyrian, give probability to that supposition.
The Assyrian soldier was finely equipped and armed as far back as the
thirteenth century B. C.; and Assyrian bas-reliefs show that they
actually used war-chariots then, drawn by horses and operated by armed
warriors. The infantry soldiers wore defensive armor consisting of
helmets, corslets made of skin or some woven stuff on which plates of
metal were sewn, and sometimes coats of steel mail; with leggings to
protect the legs. They carried shields, and were armed with lances,
swords, slings and bows and arrows. The Assyrians employed cavalry,
the horsemen wearing mail armor, and carrying shields and swords and
lances. They employed archers also; the archers being sometimes mounted.
The use of war-chariots, with all the mechanical equipment that was
necessary, in order to make them operate effectively, shows a state
of civilization much higher than many people realize. It shows also
that a great deal of inventiveness and constructiveness must have been
employed, and must have been skilfully directed;--for it is a very
long road--a very long road indeed--from the bow and arrow to the
war-chariot. In order to produce the war-chariot, several inventions
must have previously been made. The most important of these was one of
the most important inventions ever made,--the wheel.
Who invented the wheel, and when and where did he invent it?
This is one of the unanswered questions of history. The war-chariot
suddenly appears on the stage, without any preliminary announcement,
and without any knowledge on our part that even the wheel on which it
moved had been invented.
It is true that the records of prehistoric man show us that in
fashioning pottery he used a disc that he revolved on a spindle and
applied to the surface of the urn or vase; and it is also true that a
revolving disc is a kind of wheel. But a disc revolving on a stationary
spindle is in its intent and use a very different implement from a
wheel placed on a chariot, and turned by the forward movement of the
chariot itself, for the important purpose of reducing its resistance to
being drawn along the ground.
It is true also that invention was needed to produce the revolving
disc, the forerunner of all the polishing and turning machines on the
earth today. But the wheel was a different invention, probably a later
one, and certainly a more important one. There are things sometimes
seen in nature that look a little like revolving discs; for instance,
swirls of dust or water. In fact, almost anything put in rotation looks
like one, if the rotation is rapid enough; for instance, the sling that
a primeval slinger revolved around his head. But what do we know of in
nature that looks like a wheel, or that is used for a similar purpose?
Nothing. This being the case, the mind may lose itself in speculation
as to what could have led to the conception of such an appliance in the
mind of the original inventor of the wheel.
The suggestion may be hazarded that the invention was preceded by an
accidental recognition of the fact that it was easier to drag something
along the ground, if it rested on round logs, than if it did not so
rest; and by noting also that the logs were passed over and left behind
continually. From this point to the mental conception of a roller that
would not be left behind, but would be secured to the thing dragged
by a round shaft on which it revolved, there was probably a single
mental jump. Someone saw such a contrivance with his mental eye. It
looked dim and unreal--but he saw it. To make the picture clear, and
then to develop the thing pictured, constructiveness was used. In other
words, conception and development accomplished their successive but
cooperating tasks. The invention was complete when a wheel was actually
produced.
To realize the importance of the wheel, we have but to ask ourselves
(or our neighbors) how history could possibly have been even
approximately what it has been if the wheel had not been invented.
Another important invention probably made by the Assyrians was the
catapult; another one, somewhat similar, was the balista. The catapult
was used for hurling stones, balls, etc.; the balista for shooting
arrows with greater force than an archer could exert. Another was the
battering ram for making breaches in the walls of fortresses.
[Illustration: Assyrians Flaying Prisoners Alive. (From a bas-relief.)]
The Assyrians used these inventions in their wars against the
contiguous nations of the East, and with their aid achieved the
mastery, and unified the Orient. That the Assyrian rule was harsh
and cruel should not be denied; but, on the principle that any kind
of government is better than no government, it cannot reasonably be
supposed that the central and efficient administration of Assyria was
not better than the condition of continual petty wars and quarrels that
had existed among the numerous tribes and nations, with their enormous
possibilities for suffering of all kinds.
It may be pointed out here that the cruelties and injustices committed
by any powerful government against great numbers of persons attract
immeasurably more notice and condemnation by historians and others
than do the numberless atrocities of all kinds that lie hidden in the
darkness of anarchy, or the confusion of petty wars. In the endeavor to
preserve order over widely separated and barbarous peoples, when means
of transportation and communication were inadequate, stern measures
seem always to have been required. That they have often been too stern,
and that great cruelty has often been exercised, the wail of the ages
testifies. But human nature is very imperfect; and no really good
government, no government free from the faults of man, has ever been
established. Yet every government has been better than anarchy.
The Assyrians, despite their cruel treatment of their conquered
peoples, did a direct service to mankind and gave a powerful stimulus
to the march of progress. For the great empire which they established,
and the great cities which grew up, and the system of provinces which
they instituted, formed a pattern for similar work by later nations;
while the civilization which they spread throughout the more backward
countries under their rule, especially in Greece, started the later
culture which Greece developed, and which is the basis of all that is
most beautiful in the civilization of today.
The influence of the weapons which the Assyrians invented was toward
this end.
Between Egypt on the west and Babylonia and Assyria on the east lay
Syria; a territory not very large, of which the part that played the
most prominent part in history bordered the eastern coast of the
Mediterranean Sea. Two important peoples dwelt in Syria, the Hebrews
and the Phoenicians. Both belonged to the Semitic race, and neither was
distinctly warlike; though the Hebrews during a brief period achieved
considerable military strength and skill, under their great king David.
The main gift of the Hebrews to the world was the Jewish religion, a
more spiritual religion than any that had preceded it, and based on a
conception of one God, a holy God. The ideas held of immortality and of
judgment after death for the deeds done in this life were not entirely
new, but the conception of a holy and beneficent Deity was new; and
it was so inspiring and stimulating a conception that it lifted the
Jews at once to a moral and spiritual plane higher than any people had
ever lived on before. It constituted a step also directly toward the
Christian religion--which also was born in Syria; in Palestine.
That the conception and establishment of the Jewish religion was an
invention may not be admitted by some; but the author respectfully asks
attention to the sense in which he uses the word invention in this
book, and points out that they constituted an invention in that sense.
That it was a beneficent invention, and that it helped the human race
spiritually in a way analogous to that in which the invention of
many mechanical devices helped it materially, does not seem hard to
realize. For in both cases the race was transported away from savagery
and toward high civilization; and in both cases there was first a
conception of something desirable, then a constructive effort to
develop it, and finally its production.
The Phoenicians lived just north of the Jews, and possessed a territory
smaller than that of any other people who ever exercised an equal
influence on history; for it embraced merely a little strip of land
hardly longer than a hundred and twenty miles from north to south, or
wider on the average than twelve miles from east to west. It bordered
on the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea, and was shut off by the
mountains of Lebanon from Syria, that lay due east.
The Phoenicians were a people of extraordinary enterprise and
initiative. Inventors are men of extraordinary enterprise and
initiative. How much the Phoenicians are to be credited with the
invention of sailing vessels, we have no means of knowing; but we
do know that (with the possible exception of the Egyptians) the
Phoenicians were more identified with early navigation by sailing
vessels and by vessels pulled by oars than any other people. It
is even known that Phoenician vessels were navigating the Eastern
Mediterranean, both under sails and under oars, as long ago as 1500 B.
C. So, while we should not be justified in asserting positively that
the Phoenicians were the inventors and developers of sailing vessels
and of vessels pulled by banks of oars and steered by rudders, we may
declare with ample reason that probably they were.
For the purposes of this book, however, the identity of the inventors
is not important. What is important is the fact that the invention
of those vessels had immediate fruit in a commerce by which the
products of eastern civilization were taken westward to Greece and
other countries, while tin and other raw material were brought east
from Spain and even Britain; and that it had later fruit in gradually
building up a western civilization. It had other fruit as well, in
demonstrating the possibilities and the value of ocean commerce, and
forming the basis of the world-wide navigation of today.
Few inventions have had a greater influence on history than that of the
sailing ship. To some of us it may seem that no invention was involved;
that to use sails was an obvious thing to think of and accomplish. But
if any one of us will close his eyes a moment and imagine an absence
of most of the great scientific and mechanical knowledge of today, and
imagine also the absence of nearly all the present acquaintance with
the laws of weather, flotation, resistance to propulsion, metacentric
height, etc., he may realize what a feat was the invention of the
sailing ship and even of the ship pulled with oars and steered with a
rudder. It is true that we have no reason to assume that either vessel
was conceived by one leap of the imagination and developed by one act,
while we have many reasons to think that each was the result of a
series of short steps; but this does not invalidate the invention of
the ships, or depreciate its influence.
By two other achievements, also, the Phoenicians showed the kinship
between the inventor and the man of enterprise and initiative; the
invention of the Tyrian dyes and of an alphabetical system of writing
that forms the basis of the systems of today. Here again it is
necessary to remind ourselves that possibly the Phoenicians were not
the sole and original inventors of the alphabet, and that they may
have merely improved upon a system invented by, say, the Cretans; and
again it may be helpful to point out that the important fact is not the
personality of the inventors but the birth of the invention, and the
influence of the invention on history. Certain it is, however, that it
was the Phoenicians who brought alphabetical writing to the practical
stage and who not only used it themselves, but carried it in their
ships all over the Mediterranean, where it bore abundant fruit. It bore
fruit especially in Greece.
Phoenicia is an instructive illustration of the fact that a country
(like a man) may make inventions of lasting usefulness to mankind, and
yet not hold a position of power or splendor in the world. Phoenicia
was nearly always a vassal, paying tribute to one great monarchy or
another.
In striking contrast with Phoenicia was the empire of Persia, which,
though it gave to the world of that day the best government it had
ever known, contributed nothing in the nature of an actual new
stepping-stone to civilization.
Persia conquered Lydia, which is credited with the important invention
of coinage. The coins first issued by the Lydians were of electrum, an
alloy of gold and silver. King Croesus later issued coins of pure gold
and pure silver.
Directly east of Syria was Phrygia. It was in Phrygia that the flute,
the first real musical instrument, is supposed to have been invented,
in about the sixteenth century B. C.
* * * * *
The brief résumé just given of the inventions made in prehistoric
times, and also in historic times in China, Egypt and western Asia,
shows that before Greece had attained any civilization whatever the
most important inventions for the betterment of mankind had been
already made. These inventions were not only mechanical appliances
and such arts as spinning, weaving, pottery making, etc., that were
intended for safety and material benefit generally; for they included
systems of government and codes of laws and even religions that
aimed to elevate man, and that did elevate him mentally, morally and
spiritually.
At the present day, when inventions follow each other with such
rapidity that even students and experts cannot keep themselves informed
about them, except in certain specialties, it is natural for us to feel
that no inventing of any consequence was ever done before. In fact, the
present age is called "The Age of Invention." Yet all the inventions
of the last century added together have not had so great influence on
mankind as the invention of writing, or of the bow and arrow, or the
wheel--or almost any of the inventions we have noted. Not only are they
not so important,--they were not so novel, they did not constitute
steps so long, they did not mark such epochs, and probably resulted
from less brilliant pictures on the mind. Can anyone think that the
telephone was as novel or as important as the wheel? Can anyone suppose
that the steam engine, or the electric telegraph, or the powder-gun
took us as long a step upward to civilization as did papyrus? Will
anyone declare that the railroad ushered in as great an epoch as
the sailing ship? Is it probable that the first conception of the
phonograph made quite so startling a picture on the accustomed brain
of the habitual inventor as that of the art of making fire did on the
virgin mentality of the savage?
The last contribution of western Asia to the betterment of the world
was Christianity. It was not made until after Greece had reached the
prime of her civilization and passed beyond it; and some may consider
it a sacrilege to call it an invention. It was an inspiration from On
High. But dare anyone assert that the wonderful conceptions that have
come unbidden to the minds of the great inventors were not, in their
degree, also inspirations from On High? Whence did they come? That they
came there can be no doubt. Whence did they come? Our religion teaches
us that God directs our paths, that He puts good thoughts into our
minds. It also teaches us that He inspired the men who wrote the Bible.
In the ordinary meaning of the word "inspired," Some One inspired every
noble and novel and beneficent achievement that was ever made. Who?
* * * * *
Without insisting tediously on the meaning of the word invention, one
may point out that the word is used continually to mean a mental act by
which something heretofore non-existent is created. The expertest of
all word users, in any language, cried:
"Oh, for a muse that would ascend the highest heaven of invention";
expressing almost exactly what the present author is trying to express,
and indicating invention as the highest effort of the mind.
In this sense, may I reverently claim the Christian Religion as an
invention, one of the greatest inventions ever made?